Earlier this decade it was decided that the old Cromwell Memorial Hall, about 20 kilometres from where I live, had to be demolished because it was an earthquake risk.
It was another example of bureaucrats convincing politicians to take a Chicken Little approach to old buildings in the wake of what happened in Christchurch in 2011.
The single storey hall, which was opened in 1960, sat safely and peacefully beside the Kawerau River which became Lake Dunstan after the Clyde Dam was finished 35 years ago. Nothing ever fell off it or into it because of an earthquake.
It’s in a town and region of low seismic activity and relatively sparse population. There have been only two shakes in the Otago province above magnitude 5 this century, neither of them very close to Cromwell.
But nevertheless down it came, and the community was then faced with what to replace it with.
Amazingly, the Central Otago District Council (CODC) and Cromwell Community Board (CCB) went for the full noise. A council with an annual income of just over $80 million and just under 15,000 rate paying properties decided on a replacement for the Memorial Hall which would cost the thick end of $46 million!
The new building, to be opened in July, has a 400 seat auditorium, a movie theatre, a café, a museum and numerous multi-use spaces. Outside is a War Memorial Garden with a Cenotaph where we held the Anzac Day service a few days ago.
Aesthetically, I think the complex is overpowering and completely out of character with its environment but nevertheless, managed well it should be a boon to the community for entertainment, arts and culture activities.
It’s been debt funded, the debt to be funded by ratepayers and sales of council land. The council maintain the debt, around 18 million dollars, will be paid off in five years. We’ll see how that goes.
Here’s another issue. It will cost, in today’s dollars, $1.7 million a year to operate. The income in the first year is reported to be around $100,000 rising to $550,000 in six years. In other words, each ratepaying property, as well contributing to debt repayment, will be on the hook for another $80 a year just to keep the doors open and the lights on.
Sigh.
However a niggling issue has been festering around town for a few months. What will the new facility be called?
Many suspected that because the Ngai Tahu iwi consultancy Aukaha was involved in the design there would be a move to give the new building a Māori name. This despite Cromwell and Central Otago being an area essentially bereft of any Māori history or habitation throughout time.
The community was consulted on the name. The overwhelming majority wanted the words Cromwell and Memorial included. The Cromwell Community Board recommended Cromwell Memorial Events Centre. The Central Otago District Council agreed.
But the CODC had also been “gifted” a name by Aukaha, in other words Ngai Tahu. That name, which emerged yesterday is Te Puna Mahara. Apparently it means the spring of remembrance. Sort of appropriate considering it’s a war memorial next to a lake.
But the CODC now faced another issue. Which of the two names would take precedence?
Logic and the majority of the community would suggest the English name would take prominence. There is no marae in Central Otago, just 9.5 percent of the population identify as Maori, about half the national average, and there is no significant Maori history in Cromwell, a town established after the discovery of gold in 1862.
As my friend Councillor Bob Scott pointed out at the CODC meeting only 23 of the more than 600 submissions on the name for the facility suggested a Māori name should take prominence over an English one.
Another Cromwell Ward Councillor Cheryl Laws, wife of Michael, asked the Aukaha design consultant if it would be rude not to use the gifted name first.
The consultant, a Ms Novak, said it would not be impolite but “..it is also up to your community and I suppose what it can do is devalue the name by putting it second.”
Is that what’s called psychological bullying?
Bob Scott, Cheryl Laws, another Cromwell Ward Councillor Charlie Sanders and Maniototo’s Stu Duncan voted for Cromwell Memorial Events Centre to be the main name
Of course they were outvoted 8 to 4.
It’s another example of the elected representatives disregarding the wishes of the majority of their community.
The Aukaha woman could not have put it better. The name Cromwell Memorial Events Centre is being devalued, insulting the vast majority of their electorate.
The voters of Central Otago should remember that when the next elections roll around.
Peter Williams was a writer and broadcaster for half a century. Now watching from the sidelines. Peter blogs regularly on Peter’s Substack where this article was sourced.
It’s in a town and region of low seismic activity and relatively sparse population. There have been only two shakes in the Otago province above magnitude 5 this century, neither of them very close to Cromwell.
But nevertheless down it came, and the community was then faced with what to replace it with.
Amazingly, the Central Otago District Council (CODC) and Cromwell Community Board (CCB) went for the full noise. A council with an annual income of just over $80 million and just under 15,000 rate paying properties decided on a replacement for the Memorial Hall which would cost the thick end of $46 million!
The new building, to be opened in July, has a 400 seat auditorium, a movie theatre, a café, a museum and numerous multi-use spaces. Outside is a War Memorial Garden with a Cenotaph where we held the Anzac Day service a few days ago.
Aesthetically, I think the complex is overpowering and completely out of character with its environment but nevertheless, managed well it should be a boon to the community for entertainment, arts and culture activities.
It’s been debt funded, the debt to be funded by ratepayers and sales of council land. The council maintain the debt, around 18 million dollars, will be paid off in five years. We’ll see how that goes.
Here’s another issue. It will cost, in today’s dollars, $1.7 million a year to operate. The income in the first year is reported to be around $100,000 rising to $550,000 in six years. In other words, each ratepaying property, as well contributing to debt repayment, will be on the hook for another $80 a year just to keep the doors open and the lights on.
Sigh.
However a niggling issue has been festering around town for a few months. What will the new facility be called?
Many suspected that because the Ngai Tahu iwi consultancy Aukaha was involved in the design there would be a move to give the new building a Māori name. This despite Cromwell and Central Otago being an area essentially bereft of any Māori history or habitation throughout time.
The community was consulted on the name. The overwhelming majority wanted the words Cromwell and Memorial included. The Cromwell Community Board recommended Cromwell Memorial Events Centre. The Central Otago District Council agreed.
But the CODC had also been “gifted” a name by Aukaha, in other words Ngai Tahu. That name, which emerged yesterday is Te Puna Mahara. Apparently it means the spring of remembrance. Sort of appropriate considering it’s a war memorial next to a lake.
But the CODC now faced another issue. Which of the two names would take precedence?
Logic and the majority of the community would suggest the English name would take prominence. There is no marae in Central Otago, just 9.5 percent of the population identify as Maori, about half the national average, and there is no significant Maori history in Cromwell, a town established after the discovery of gold in 1862.
As my friend Councillor Bob Scott pointed out at the CODC meeting only 23 of the more than 600 submissions on the name for the facility suggested a Māori name should take prominence over an English one.
Another Cromwell Ward Councillor Cheryl Laws, wife of Michael, asked the Aukaha design consultant if it would be rude not to use the gifted name first.
The consultant, a Ms Novak, said it would not be impolite but “..it is also up to your community and I suppose what it can do is devalue the name by putting it second.”
Is that what’s called psychological bullying?
Bob Scott, Cheryl Laws, another Cromwell Ward Councillor Charlie Sanders and Maniototo’s Stu Duncan voted for Cromwell Memorial Events Centre to be the main name
Of course they were outvoted 8 to 4.
It’s another example of the elected representatives disregarding the wishes of the majority of their community.
The Aukaha woman could not have put it better. The name Cromwell Memorial Events Centre is being devalued, insulting the vast majority of their electorate.
The voters of Central Otago should remember that when the next elections roll around.
Peter Williams was a writer and broadcaster for half a century. Now watching from the sidelines. Peter blogs regularly on Peter’s Substack where this article was sourced.
15 comments:
I live in Upper Hutt were the Council art gallery and performance auditorium used to be known as Expressions. A distinctive and descriptive name that I used to regularly look up to see what was happening there and attend events. Then they changed the name to some long Maori phrase that I can never remember. Something about Whirinaki, which is a place in the Bay of Plenty. Consequently, I never look up what is happening and never go there.
“Is that what’s called psychological bullying?”
No, it’s entirely sensible and Peter is in no way qualified to name something that is a significant boon the the community. Only people in touch with the community should be involved in that.
Common sense in action! A rarity in bureaucracy!
Cultural bullying - velvet hand in the iron glove It is rude to decline a gift.
This is the road to tribal rule - no confrontation but suddenly a new order.
'Gifting' a name means 'You are lucky we did not charge you for our services.' It's all part of the Race to the Bottom--when people want the largest credit for the smallest efforts. In universities, the mantra (from Education, of course) is that a Professor with 25 years of subject knowledge should learn from an 18 year old with zero knowledge. Oh, but they have 'lived experience ', the knowledge-lacking Education Professor will say....
Peter, did you expect that any name change of a public facility would be in anything other than some synthetic Maori words ?
You can bet at the Council meeting some Maori leaning person would set up the new name, challenge anyone to refute it, bully the rest of them with taunts of racism.
What is going to be the outcome if you have added unelected Councilors with full voting rights to the committees ?
As long as seemingly intelligent people keep 'rolling over' this crap will continue to the point where we will give our newborn children maori names.
We have no one to blame but ourselves, we let it happen at the start, we continue to let it happen now and will let it continue ad infinitum.
All the new train stations in auckland are being called long maori names that no one can pronounce and even the existing ststions such as mt eden or the main hub Britomart have had their names changed for being too racist. All the announcements are done in te reo so that no one knows what they are saying. Therr are all these staff members wearing pink jackets that say " ask me" on them, but they don't know te reo either. I'm surprised that Cromwell is still allowed to keep the name as Cromwell to be honest.
Peter should be happier with the cooker parties ACT and NZ F running the country but he seems eternally grieved about something. Call your MP, Peter, don’t waste your time writing in your diary. Action beats virtue signalling every time.
Anon 1204 “long maori names that no one can pronounce”. Fella, are you ok? You live in New Zealand and presumably were raised here. Learning new things keeps the brain active. Language particularly- even a native AND offices language will set you up well.
Schoolkids can do it. Give it a go!
The problem here, Anon 132, is the compulsion that accompanies negating the British heritage of this country as reflected by the names of cities, stations, etc. 'Official' language, bulldust - pure make-believe as there is more Mandarin Chinese spoken in NZ homes than Maori. I am myself fluent in English, competent in my mother tongue Dutch, a very good TokPisin user, and can read French and Afrikaans - and I am not going to add to that list because someone is holding a gun to my head and saying, "Learn or else."
Help me understand that: the community, the community board and the council all agreed on what is to be in the name. Why then simply not add the gifted name to the one preferred by the community and be done with it? Why does council need to seek the approval of the design consultant how to use the name?
Our New Zealand identity is the slow boiled frog, and the hand that's doing the boiling is the apartheid, racist Maori activists.
They are winning because we do not stand up and say "NO MORE!!!"
More fingers waved at the general public, in spite of the Government demands.
Anyone heard of :
Te Tari Pureke ?
If you were taking any notice of their simplistic web page you might know it is the :
Firearms Safety Authority
In the 1830s did the Te Tari Pureke instruct Te Rauparaha's men to load the gunpowder into white man's muskets carefully and only point them at the neighbors when they were sure of their target ?
Yet another made up bullshit name, with the audacity to being in bold type 3x the size of the English name in a non bold fine typeface.
And what is this Coalition going to do about it ???
I expect it will be the same next duck season with probably dozens more staff.
Any reaction at all from the people responsible ???
Agree with you Barend. It is the compulsion of Tereo that rankles. When most Maori are motivated enough to learn (it is their language after all), then the rest of us can be encouraged (note the word "encouraged", not "compelled") to learn it. Until then, don't bother me with it
I would think the only time it will be given its full name is on official letter head or business. To my way of thinking it will always be known as the Cromwell Memorial Events Centre - on its own a wordy mouthful.
As a side note we held a large family event in the old hall about five years ago with much revelry - not a sign of being an earthquake risk. I certainly agree with the facade being overbearing. I thought it was supposed to reflect the surrounding landscape? If it was in soft greys would have been more fitting. Reflecting the rock of the surrounds.
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